Senate panel votes to limit top 10 percent admissions law

AUSTIN - No more than half a freshman class could be automatically admitted to a state university through Texas' "top 10 percent" law under a measure approved Wednesday by a Senate committee.

If the full Senate and then the House sign on, it would be the first modification to the law since it was enacted in 1996.

The measure by Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, was approved by the Senate Higher Education Committee on a 4-1 vote, with Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, casting the only dissent. He warned that the change could cause the number of minority and rural students at the University of Texas at Austin to drop.

Shapiro said that while only UT-Austin is seeing much of its class enter under the rule, it is expected to restrict student admissions at Texas A&M University and UT-Dallas soon. The senator said 81 percent of incoming freshmen at UT-Austin last fall were admitted under the top 10 percent rule, shutting out large numbers of other qualified students - many with higher SAT scores than those who were accepted.

"No other institution in this state is forced to look at only one criterion for student admission," she said. "We should be looking at test scores, special talents, leadership ability, personal achievement and other relevant student background."

West said UT-Austin has the most diverse student population in its history, thanks to the top 10 percent rule.

"If we pass this bill and the diversity numbers go into the tank, what happens?" he asked. "The reality is there is a mechanism in place to put pressure on universities to allow students from diverse groups to be admitted."

West also pointed out that top 10 percent students have higher GPAs in their first year of college than non-top 10 percent students, according to a higher education study.

Shapiro countered that there would be no slippage in student diversity with her bill.

"The world has changed, and the fact is that more students are better prepared to go to a major university," she said.